Sean Nicholls and Josephine Tovey

There are two contenders to take over from Barry O'Farrell as NSW Premier after his resignation, but Liberal party sources claim the numbers remain "very fluid".

Mr O'Farrell, who resigned on Wednesday morning after giving misleading evidence to the Independent Commission Against Corruption, has called a Liberal party room meeting for next week.

At this early stage, Treasurer Mike Baird is being touted as the leading contender. A member of the left faction, Baird also enjoys the support of many in the right thanks to his position on privatisation of public assets.

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But the question is whether Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian will run. Ms Berejiklian has always been touted as O'Farrell's favoured successor. It is understood she has told colleagues she has yet to make up her mind.

As a long time warrior of the left, there is a view the right could actively seek to destabilise her premiership.

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However, another source dismissed this view. "The numbers are all over the place," the source said.

"The issue is what will provide stability for the government. This is not just factional. Everyone's going to be looking at what's best for the state".

The man who stands as a favourite to succeed Barry O’Farrell as premier of New South Wales has been touted as future leadership material since he entered parliament.

This is both due to his Liberal pedigree, as the son of party statesman Bruce Baird, a former minister of the NSW Greiner government and MP in the federal Howard government, as well as the affability and acumen he has displayed in the job.

Baird was born in 1968, and spent years of his childhood living overseas while his father served postings in Europe and New York as Trade Comissioner. He returned to attend the elite King’s School in Parramatta, and was a keen surfer.

Faith had been an integral part of his upbringing and in shaping his values. In his maiden speech to parliament, Baird cited the work of his mother, Judy.

‘‘As I also watched her regularly meeting with some of the state's toughest women criminals to feed, encourage and love them, I learnt there is life and hope in those we are quick to dismiss,’’ he said.

‘‘As I, my sister, Julia, and brother, Steve, looked at them both we saw a life lived in Jesus.’’

Though he was president of the local chapter of the Young Liberals, it was in finance, not politics, that he pursued a career.

But like Prime Minister Tony Abbott, he also felt the pull of his Christianity, and left finance to spend a year at bible college in Canada in 1995.

"I'd always wrestled with, I guess, wanting to make a contribution," he told Fairfax reporter Stephanie Wood of the decision to leave investment banking and start his studies to become an Anglican church minister.

"I questioned whether my day-to-day [work] was helping anyone, in any way, shape or form. We are not here for long and I don't want to get to the end of my time here and look back with regret."

But he returned to banking for more than a decade, working with Deutsche Bank and HSBC, before deciding to follow in his father’s footsteps and try to enter parliament.

Baird won the seat of Manly in 2007 and within a year held the shadow portfolio for finance.

He became the shadow treasurer a year later in 2008. Then-opposition leader Barry O'Farrell said he had promoted Baird because of his strong finance sector background, his communications skills and because he had "demonstrated the capacity to handle the big issues".

Within a day speculation he was on a path to become leader was already being aired in the media.

As Treasurer of NSW since 2011, he has been in charge of pushing through some of the government’s most controversial budget measures, such as cutting public service jobs and the sale of public assets such as the electricity generators. The moves have been attacked by unions but have also been criticised by some on the right for not going far enough.

He is regarded as a strong parliamentary performer, and an affable person, displaying a clear ease in social and professional events.Though he is from the Left faction, Baird enjoys the support of many on the right, largely due to his views on the privatisation of public assets.

His socially conservative views also align with many of those on the right, with Baird voting against law reform such as allowing homosexual couples to adopt children in 2010, and voicing his opposition to gay marriage.

"I don't in any way see that as a degradation or a reduction in rights for those who are choosing to live a homosexual lifestyle,’’ he said in 2012.

Baird has always played down leadership talk and pledged his loyalty to Barry O’Farrell.

Gladys Berejiklian

The woman who has determinedly climbed the ladder of the NSW Liberal Party, wrangled the notoriously troublesome transport portfolio and could become the state’s first female Liberal premier has always played down her own success.

“I’m a bit of a quiet achiever,’’ she told Fairfax Media in a candid interview in 2011. ‘‘I’ve never tried to be one of the boys; I just do my own thing and, in good time, the results show.”

Berejiklian, now 43, grew up on Sydney’s north shore and is of Armenian heritage – her parents met in Sydney after migrating to Australia in the 1960s. In her maiden speech to parliament, she said her parent’s migrant background and her upbringing instilled what she now recognises as ‘‘core Liberal values’’.

‘‘For me, the essence of liberalism is having the opportunity to pursue and achieve your life goals, irrespective of your background, and then give something back to society by ensuring that this opportunity is created for others,’’ she said.

"I strongly believe that governments should strive to achieve the liberal principle of equality of opportunity as opposed to the Labor Party’s ideological position of equality of outcome.’’

She joined the Liberal Party in 1991 when she was just 21 and served as one of the earliest female presidents of the Young Liberals, holding the position from 1997 to 1998.

She was enthusiastic and ambitious about playing an active role in the party from a young age. While still at university, she was determined to gain a junior part-time job in the office of Peter Collins, who was state member for Willoughby at the time and would go on to become Liberal leader. According to a 2011 Fairfax profile, Berejiklian faxed him continuously for three weeks until he caved in.

“She made herself indispensable,” Collins said. “And shot up pretty quickly. She ‘got’ politics from the day she walked into my office.”

Berejiklian worked in banking until she was elected to parliament in 2003, in the seat of Willoughby. Campaign posters focused on her first name ‘‘Gladys’’ as opposed to her surname.

She held a number of minor shadow portfolios before being promoted to to the shadow transport ministry in 2006.

She was a stand-out performer in opposition and retained the transport portfolio when the Coalition was elected in a landslide in 2011.

The high esteem in which she is held by Barry O’Farrell was made clear during the ABC broadcast on the election night, when O’Farrell famously declared he was ‘‘only talking to Gladys’’.

‘‘You’ve done a great job through this campaign, you’ve done a great job as shadow minister, you’ll be a great Minister for Transport,’’ he declared on live television.

As Minister for Transport, Berejiklian has managed the difficult portfolio without any major hiccups. She is forging ahead on the expansion of light rail through the inner city and eastern suburbs and has committed billions to a new train line through to the north-west. The Opal card, which she is rolling out across the public transport system, was a contract signed by Labor in 2010.

She has managed to avoid confrontations with transport unions in her time in office, despite privatising the operation of Sydney’s ferries and attempting to reform the rail system.

She has long been considered O’Farrell’s preferred choice for a successor, when the time came, but whenever she has been asked about her ambitions for the leadership she has played it down.

“I don’t think I’m as good as people think I am,’’ she told Fairfax in 2011, appearing to confirm O’Farrell’s view that ‘‘her weakness at times is that she sells herself short”.